


Always

by shelovestoship



Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family feels-ish, Gen, Happily Ever After, Lily is their daugther, Magnum family, Magnum saves the day, Miggy established relationship, Near Death Experience, referenced minor character death - Apollo - like long before this story starts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24167827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelovestoship/pseuds/shelovestoship
Summary: From ice cream at the beach to slowly bleeding out in the jungle... this was not how she thought her day would go.(Blood. The importance of Rainbow Bridge. Genetic heroism).Always.(another new story? What about Marriage of Inconvenience???? I have no excuse, but at least it's a one-shot...)
Relationships: Juliet Higgins/Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV
Comments: 21
Kudos: 102





	Always

## Always

“Mummy-” Lily whispered.

“Shhhh,” Juliet pressed a finger to her daughter's lips as the faint sound of heavy boots drew near. Only after doing it did she realized she’d smeared blood on Lily’s face and quickly tried to wipe it away before pulling her to her unhurt side.

Waiting. Praying to anything and everything. Her own breath seemed impossibly loud as did Lily’s quiet little whimpers. 

At least she wasn’t as hot anymore, but reflecting further on this, realized it was not a good thing. How much blood had she lost?

“It’s okay,” she finally dared to whisper when the jungle had been quiet for several minutes. “They’re gone.”

“Can we go home now?” Lily whispered, wide-eyed but still keeping it together. 

“Daddy’s gonna come get you,” she promised. And he would. He would save their daughter. But it was most unlikely he'd get there in time to save her. “Remember how we called and told him we were in trouble.”

“But that was far away from here,” Lily pointed out. A little too smart. Always asking so many questions. Juliet normally loved that. “Over on the road.”

“That’s why it might take a little bit,” she said and tried to move a little but the pain stopped her. “But you’re going to have to stay here and be very quiet.”

“Where are you going?” she asked, looking at the blood soaking into more and more of Juliet's top.

“Nowhere. But remember when we read that book where the little girl’s granny died and you asked what dying meant?” Juliet asked, hating that she had to do this but she had to make sure Lily understood. If she understood maybe it would be a _little_ bit easier. 

“That you leave and go to heaven where everyone is nice and happy?” Lily recounted. “And you watch over all the people on earth like an angel? From the sky? Like being in Mr. TC's helicopter?”

“Sort of like that,” she stroked Lily’s hair, no longer caring that she was getting blood on her, she just wanted to touch her, hold her for a little bit longer. But little black spots danced at the edge of her vision and she knew she didn’t have a lot of time. 

Lily’s eyes narrowed, comprehension on her face. “If you’re going to go to heaven I want to go with you.”

“You can’t do that, it’s not your-”

“Daddy will come and fix it,” Lily protested, starting to pull away. “If I yell he’ll come-”

“No,” she said, louder than she meant to, than she thought she had the strength for. “No, you have to stay here and be very quiet until daddy comes and finds you. Remember how he can find people by tracking them in the jungle? He’s going to follow our footprints here, okay?”

“But-”

Juliet shook her head and pulled Lily back to her as she closed her eyes. “Remember I love you. Always.”

“No,” Lily squirmed out of her weak embrace. “I’m going to go find daddy and he’ll stop you from going.”

She tried to move, to open her eyes but it seemed her body had finally given up even as her brain screamed in a panic. Lily could be hurt, lost, taken by the men who had shot her. So many bad things could happen to her. And Lily was so much smaller, so hard to track. He wouldn’t be able to find her, save her.

How had it all gone so wrong? How had they gone from ice cream at the beach to running for their lives in the jungle? 

Then eventually the panic faded and the limpness that had come over her body began seeping into her mind. Even the familiar sound _cracks_ she somehow -even teetering at the edge of complete nothingness - could identify as gunshots didn’t bring any panic even as she knew they _should_.

“Look at me,” some was suddenly saying, very far away. “Come on girl, open your eyes for me.”

That voice. She knew that voice. She should open her eyes. She wanted to. Just to see him one more time.

Just once.

It took so much effort.

“Magnum?” Something of the panic came back. “Lily!”

“She’s fine, Rick’s got her,” he told her.

She nodded. That was all she needed to hear and she let the tendrils of darkness pull her with them. 

* * *

And she was warm and floating.

There was yelling and a loud sound. _Thump, thump, thump._ A dog wagging its tail against the carpet. She wondered if it was Apollo.

She'd been told as a child all pets waited for their owners in a beautiful meadow called Rainbow Bridge so they could enter heaven together with them. She always imagined it looked like the Scottish Highlands, lakes, mountains, green hills with a little mist on them. Wild yet peaceful, the perfect place for dogs to romp and play.

She wondered if she'd told Lily about it. It seemed important for her daughter to know such a place wonderful place existed. 

Then Juliet remembered she didn't really believe in Rainbow Bridge or heaven, it wasn't logical, despite what she'd told Lily. But maybe she'd been wrong and she'd be stroking her old dog's sleek fur any second. She found herself hoping she was wrong, which was rare for her.

But there was no Apollo.

No meadow.

Instead, she realized she was inside a helicopter.

She tried to smile.

Lily had been right… Heaven was like TC’s helicopter. And Magnum was there, his mouth moving as if he was talking to her but the t _hump, thump, thump_ sound made it impossible to hear him.

Strange, she’d thought heaven would be quiet.

Except, you know, she didn't really believe in heaven.

(Or maybe she did.)

* * *

“But mummy,” Lily whined as she move around on the hospital bed like an eel in water. “Daddy already said he was really proud of me and if I still wanted a pony for my birthday, I could have one!”

“He said what?” She tried to sit up - which was a mistake - and glared at the door. 

“I’ll go and get him and he can tell you,” Lily said cheerfully jumping off the hospital bed to hurry to the door. She stopped for a second and turned around, hesitating.

“What is it darling?”

Lily bit her lip. “I’m really glad you didn’t have to go to heaven. But I'm sorry you didn't get to see Apollo again.”

Then she quickly spun around and rushed out calling for her father, leaving Juliet to blink away sudden tears.

“Having a bad day?” Magnum asked as he came into the room, sans Lily and closed the door, and saw her wiping at her face. 

“No. I’m actually happy,” she said, not sure what else to explain it. “And did you promise our daughter a pony?”

“She already told you about that huh?” he winced as he came over to stand next to her bed.

“She shouldn’t be getting _anything_ Magnum!”

He protested, “She saved your life.”

“And risked her own to do so,” she said the panic of that moment coming back to her again. “I told her to stay-”

“She’s not a dog-”

“If she’d been hurt or worse-”

“Stop,” he said softly but so firmly, holding up a finger. “She wasn’t. She found us, she helped give us directions to where you were. She saved your life. Everything worked out.“

“Oh god, I can’t believe how calm you’re being,” she said. “This is a problem.”

He sat on the bed, as she was to the far side there was plenty enough space. His warmth, pressing against her, his scent, just him, made her feel just, well, better. “Our daughter being a hero is a problem?”

“She’s not meant to be a hero, she’s meant to be five,” Juliet whispered, not sure if she wanted to strangle him or cry into his chest.

“Five and a half,” he said playfully as he leaned back and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. When she gave him a look he added, “What? The half is very important.”

“You’re impossible!”

“Look at it this way,” he said very simply. “She’s our kid, right?”

“Right,” she said, nodding, even though she wasn’t sure where he was going with this.

“Well, what are we?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What? You're saying this is some sort of genetic heroism?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” He smiled smugly. “We combined our hero genes so it wasn’t even really Lily’s fault. She was just doing what her genes - our genes - told her to do.”

“You know very well that’s not how genetics work,” she said but couldn’t help but smile just a little.

“There you go. A minute there I was worried I wouldn’t get to see that smile again,” he said. his dark eyes serious and full of emotion. “You know what she said when she came out of that jungle, blood all over her?”

“What?” she said even though she could imagine.

“She told me to go stop you because _you were going to heaven without us._ ” He brushed her cheek. “Then when I found you-you were so cold… you scared me.”

“I'm fine,” she whispered and leaned into his touch. “I’m alright.”

“That’s good,” he said with a sigh, closing his eyes. She suspected he hadn’t slept since...well since everything went down. “Because I’m not sure I am.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder. “That's okay. I can be alright for the both of us.”

“Yeah?” he mumbled, sleepily opening his eyes again.

“Go to sleep,” she whispered. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Promise?” He asked, sounding more like Lily than himself.

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> As mentioned I was working on MoI but then wham, this thing just flew into my head and I had to write it. I kind of like it and I think it's helping me deal with my kind of "OMG we get no new Magnum in like months and months" feels.


End file.
